The Journal

Issue date: 12/6/07 Section: News

Photography professor Susan Hacker Stang is about to release her debut book through the Webster University Press, established last January.

"It's been a big dream of mine to have my own ISBN number," Stang said.

The concept of starting a press at WU was initiated from the amount of scholarly work faculty and staff were doing throughout the network, said Jim Staley, associate vice president for Academic Affairs. Many faculty and staff members were turning their work into publications and releasing them to the public.

"The press is another opportunity to provide an outlet for them," Staley said. "It's a natural extension."

WU will partner with publishing companies so it does not have to buy an actual press. The university also will not have to financially back the press. Both private and federal donations will help cover the cost of publishing for Stang's book.

For Stang's book "Encountering Florence," the first published by WU, the co-publisher is an Italian company called Palombi Editori, located in Rome. Her book includes photographs of Florence, Italy, from three trips she took there during the past five years. Two of her friends, Florentines Andrea Burzi and Susanna Sarti, helped her accompany the photographs with text. The book includes work from various poets, novelists and essayists and has both English and Italian translations.

Stang said each of her visits to Florence were university-backed, both by faculty research grants and her sabbatical. She knew she wanted to publish the book in Italy, but also wanted to publish it in the United States. When she began searching for someone to publish the book in the United States in January 2007, Stang said she went to Staley and asked him if it would be possible to publish through WU. This happened to be the same month the press was established.

"I had no idea we were starting a press," Stang said. "I asked Jim, 'Is this a crazy idea?' and he said the timing was good."

WU has never had a press in the past, but with the financial backing of outside sources, the opportunity arose to start one.

Laura Rein, dean of the Emerson Library, sits on the board for the press.

"Because Webster's primary mission is teaching and not research, we would never have had a press before," Rein said.

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